#revallen: what do you mean father

[attractthecrows]

Making Solas stand there and watch and say NOTHING while Dirennen's ghost warns Revallen about the Dread Wolf dogging his steps JUST so I can make Revallen laugh in Solas's face at the trespasser reveal

[attractthecrows]

man i cannot stop thinking about Revallen finding the bones of his father. cannot fathom why the inquisition would be in coastal Nevarra. but it would be SUCH a gut punch not only for Revallen but also Dorian (the bones of a father that gave his life for his son(isn't that what a father should be?)) and the other companions to a certain extent (you've never seen the Inquisitor this haunted)

I see Revallen recognizing a landmark and just freezing. he doesn't move a muscle for like a solid minute, just staring at [whatever]. the companions are confused and concerned, if Cole is there he starts wigging out. someone asks what's wrong and instead of answering, Revallen takes off in a new direction, leaving the companions to catch up. he's practically barreling through the vegetation, completely ignoring the cries of slow down and Amatus!

Eventually they catch up to him, because he's stopped at the base of a massive, gnarled tree. Hell, it's not even one tree, it's a tangle of several different ones, roots embedded into what looks like a collapsed, rocky hillside. Some of the roots are blackened and sick, dark tendrils reaching up the trunks of the trees twisted together like thread. It's absolutely massive, and Revallen is standing at the base of the rooted stones, staring up towards the canopy. His eyes are hollow, haunted. when they ask him again what's wrong he turns his head to look at them for just a moment. then, wordlessly, he reaches out his hand, and places it on one of the thicker taproots tangled in the stone.

for a long, tense moment, nothing happens. then the taproot starts to move. a few pebbles fall. smaller, thinner wisps of root begin to smoke, resisting Revallen's mana, and then withdraw. Slowly, haltingly, the roots release their grip on the stones, revealing not a hillside but a collapsed cave entrance. Revallen pulls down one of the stones, and the rest follow, lacking the tension to hold them in place. then he steps into the cave.

there are signs of an old fight. darkspawn weapons and armor, and their blighted bones. against one of the cave walls is a semicircle of clear ground, roots reaching towards a skeleton in the center, clad in rotting Keeper's robes.

Revallen heads straight for the skeleton. He kneels next to it, and the companions enter the cave to his whispered elvish prayers.

They hang back, uneasy. One of them tentatively asks what happened here. Revallen reaches forward and picks up the skull from where it had fallen off the neck, holding it in both hands to peer into its empty sockets.

"During the Blight," he says quietly, "Keeper Dirennen made his last stand here. Darkspawn were starting to appear from this cave, from a single connection to the Deep Roads. Dirennen baited them, and when they were focused on him, he collapsed the entrance and sealed it. He was a gifted adahl'eralan - that tree outside was his doing. He gave his life to protect his clan."

"How do you know this?"

"I watched it happen." He shifts the skull to one hand to count on his fingers. "I was... 16 at the time. The last thing he did before this stand was carve my vallaslin."

"Your vallaslin? He was your Keeper?"

"No," Revallen stands, still holding the skull as if it were made of spun glass. "He was my father."

Then he turns and exits the cave.

do they follow? I mean, they must - he's the Inquisitor. but this is so sudden, so private. Dorian, at least, follows without question. he's never seen Revallen like this, and it worries him.

outside, Revallen is digging a hole at the base of the twisted tree, clawing through the dirt with his bare hands. His father's skull is set beside him on one of the taproots, watching the proceedings with its skeletal grin.

Dorian kneels beside him and places a gentle hand on his back. Revallen starts a little, but relaxes when he sees who it is. "Are you all right, Amatus?"

"Yes," Revallen says automatically, "no. I don't know. I never expected to set foot here again." He sits back, his filthy hands in his lap, and stares at the skull for a long, heavy moment. Then he lifts it tenderly off of the root and sets it in the hole, facing the sky.

"Is there anything we should do for him?" Dorian asks quietly.

Revallen sighs, rubbing an eye with the back of his hand. "Normally, we bury our dead with oaken staff and a branch of cedar, to help them on their journey and keep away Fear and Deceit. Then we plant a tree over their grave. But I have neither staff nor cedar branch, so this will have to do."

He scoops a handful of dirt into the makeshift grave. Dorian nods and does the same, and together, the pair of them bury the skull of Revallen's father.

"Hahren na melana sahlin," Revallen murmurs, pushing his fingers into the loose dirt, holding a seed. "Emma ir abelas. Souver'inan isala hamin, vhenan him dor'felas. In din'an na revas. Vir sulahn'nehn, vir dirthera. Vir samahl la numin. Vir lath sa'vunin."

A pulse of mana flows from Revallen's fingers into the seed, which sprouts, pushing up through the loose soil and growing rapidly to the size of a ten-year-old tree.

"Now that is an impressive bit of magic, if I do say so."

Revallen stands, brushing the dirt off his knees. "I'm not as good as my father was."

"He sounds like quite the man." Dorian looks up at the twisted column of trees, towering over the silver birch Revallen just sprouted. "What was that you called him earlier? Adahl..."

"Adahl'eralan."

"What does that mean?"

Revallen considers his answer as he digs some of the dirt from beneath his fingernails. "I think it'd be 'xylomancer', mage of trees. He could make the trees walk. In places where the Veil is thin, he could even make them sing."

"That's incredible. I wish I could have met him."

Revallen looks at him, then reaches out to stroke his cheek with the back of his finger. "I think he would have liked you," he says with a gentle smile.

[attractthecrows]

anyways one of the most Delicious things about Revallen as a character, as The Inquisitor, as The Lynchpin Of Fate, is that he embraces power and secrets, right? but that's just my gameplay style, right?

WRONG

He seeks power and secrets because that's who he IS, that's who he's ALWAYS BEEN, he's been a dedicated servant of the God of Secrets since he was fucking 16 years old. He is THE secret monger. He is THE Dalish Keeper of Ancient Knowledge. Which means of all his kinsmen, HE is the one most able to put some of the random elven shit they find into context, because he's been doing it for over a goddamn decade. And this knowledge base he has, his innate curiosity and searching for understanding and new perspectives, helps him actually befriend Solas, and makes the betrayal that much more heart wrenching.

Which feeds into Revallen's other themes of wrath and self-control. He's a Keeper - he knows how much death and tragedy has befallen his people over the last thousand years, and the anger is always there. He's almost succumbed to an ancient spirit of elven fury on at least 1 occasion before Inquisition; the whispered reminders of betrayal and murder and every slight of 1000 years are ever-present, the spirit's grip held back by Revallen's own self-control. They're not friends; the spirit is dangerous, after all. But there's a level of understanding between them. It's not a demon; it was never twisted from it's purpose. But it's purpose is to reflect the anguish, the despair, the bloodlust and fury of thousands of elves subjected to a thousand years of atrocities. When Solas reveals to him that he's tearing everything down - not just the humans, but everything, everyone currently living - it breaks his self-control and riles up the spirit, because now they have something in common.

Like, part of what kept Revallen from pulling the trigger and becoming an abomination was his need to protect his people, and specifically his daughter. The spirit kind of gets that, but it wants retribution for ALL elves, and can't focus on the living. That's what kept them separate; the spirit would boost Revallen's power on occasion, and in places of elven suffering would gently try again to combine, but Revallen refused every time because he had to protect his daughter and couldn't do that as an abomination. With Solas tearing down the Veil, the whole world is in danger; every elf there is, including Revallen's daughter. For once, to combine IS to protect the living.

It's so delightful. Revallen's entire character is a mess of contradictions. You are Dalish, and the Herald of Andraste. You sing the old songs and say the old prayers, and new songs and hymns are being written about *you*. You are a Keeper in exile, the heart of your Clan. You abandoned your people, and you sacrificed everything for your people. You are a pyromancer, and your father was a xylomancer, a mage of wood and plants - you cannot embrace your father's teachings without burning them. You are the Inquisitor, with the weight of the world on your shoulders... you are a parent, and the weight of your child far outweighs the rest of the world.

And at the end, you have betrayed and destroyed yourself for nothing. You have sacrificed everything for the world. You are burning up your life for your daughter (just as your father burned up his life for you, all those years ago)